Infinity | Carl Jara

A week or so ago, I went to the beach. I took my chair and my bag of books (yes, one must be prepared for any number of reading moods. I settled on Chekhov’s The Sea Gull) all the way down to only a few meters from the water’s edge and set to reading.

Courtesy of Carl Jara

At some point near the end of the first act, a group of children began to build a sand castle directly between the water and me.The tide was coming in, and it turned for them into more of an effort of defending their construct than building it up.

Courtesy of Carl Jara

Luckily for me, their efforts- walls, motes, and channels, meant I could continue sitting in my chair for much longer than those around me- the encroaching tide simply hit the sand castle walls and was repelled.

Courtesy of Carl Jara

Another sand castle story of a little more artistic merit is that of the Cleveland-based woodworker and sand sculptor Carl Jara. He frequently finds himself in the top tier of the various sand sculpting competitions which take place around the US. In the Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Competition occuring recently, he took first.

Courtesy of Carl Jara

The winning work was titled Infinity and featured a mind-bending, Russian doll-like repetition of five consecutive human forms, each holding the next in his palm. More images of Jara’s works can be found on Jara’s Flickr page.